Britican Experience (Booking Fee)

$250.00

We’ve opened up our lives and boat to those that want to experience what it’s like to live on a liveaboard boat. Our weeklong Britican Experience will provide the perfect opportunity for couples, families and singles to try before they buy. The cost for the week is $6,000 (excluding airfare, airport/ferry transfers to and from Britican and alcohol) – same price for the a single, couple or family (up to four). The $250 is a non-refundable booking fee to secure set dates. All Experiences are currently operating out of Grenada in the Caribbean (map below). Full details, testimonials, and Q&A below. Please book only after we’ve confirmed dates. Email info@SailingBritican.com to check availability on dates.

Description

The Britican Experience is not like chartering a boat for a week. The experience is all about you and your family discovering what it’s like to live like a liveaboard family. It’s not about sailing to exotic white beaches, drinking gin and tonics at a tiki bar or snorkeling amazing dive sites (although that is included). The Britican Experience has been set up for you to get an honest look at what it’s like to keep a boat afloat, sail to beautiful destinations and operate as a couple or family (singles are welcome too) all the while picking our brains for a full week.

All experiences are currently being booked in Grenada, a beautiful Caribbean country

For some, it’s a try before you buy

Try the live aboard lifestyle for a week to determine if you really want to spend $10,000’s and $100,000’s on a boat. The amount of people we’ve met that get the boat, spend months and years fixing it up only to realize that they don’t like to sail or their partner hates the boat or…

With the Britican Experience you can gain an insight into the lifestyle to truly determine if it’s a ‘yes’ for all parties involved.

For others, it’s something solid to aim for

The Experience offers the sights, smells, sounds, tastes and feelings that come with living the dream. It’s hard to visualize a future lifestyle if you haven’t yet lived it. By spending a week aboard Britican, you’ll taste the sea air, hear the the sea birds calling, see the white tropical beaches lined with palm trees and feel the warm sun on your skin.

You’ll also taste vinegar and water (it’s the mixture we use to clean everything on the boat), hear the generator purring (to make us water, cook our food and keep our batteries topped up), see the underside of the hull (if the barnacles need to be cleaned off) and feel what it feels like when a job or task takes five hours longer than it should have.

Being a live aboard cruiser is amazing

The perks are many – heck, when we get tired of looking at one incredibly beautiful view we can sail for a couple hours and choose another one. We can travel all over the world and come home to our home and our bed every night. We can choose to say in warm weather all the time or we can explore cooler regions (although I’m not sure what the appeal is with that)! And best of all, it costs absolutely nothing to anchor.

But it’s also hard work

I always tell people that are interested in the lifestyle how hard it is but people neglect to hear me. I suppose it’s like having a baby. People tell you that it’s tough but you don’t really understand what they meant until you give birth and struggle to survive the first year.

With the Britican Experience you get to see the good and the not-so-good. And the not-so-good isn’t bad – it’s actually not bad…it’s just different from what we’ve grown to know and understand. As I always say, you don’t know what you don’t know. Boy – when it comes go owning and maintaining a boat you really don’t know what you don’t know.

The Britican Experience will help prospective boat buyers/owners/cruisers to bridge that gap.

But who are we?

If you don’t know who we are, check us out on YouTube. Also spend time looking over our 400+ articles that are on the website. You’ll quickly decide whether you like us and our style or not. We’ve been sailing an Oyster 56′ (monohull) since 2014 and have done over 30,000 nautical miles circumnavigating the Mediterranean, crossing the Atlantic and sailing the US east coast and the Caribbean (twice).

We’re a family of three. The Captain is Simon, a Brit that had very little prior experience with sailing or boat ownership until leaving land. The First Mate is Kim, an American that sat on boats all her life and tried to look pretty (and learned nothing about boating). And then there’s Sienna, a Britican, that has spent more of her life on a boat than on land. She’s the Admiral 😉

What will we learn while we’re with you?

Depending on what each family member is looking for we’ll create a week long experience on Britican that includes any or all of the following (just to mention a small sample):

Britican Experience Feedback

“I had the most incredible experience on Britican with Simon, Kim, and Sienna. They are extremely knowledgeable with years of cruising experience and it shows. During my stay with them I got to learn how they provision for long passages, plan for weather, determine the appropriate routes for passages, as well as get direct experience with night sailing, navigation, passage making, radio communications, and many other things.

There is no substitute for getting hands on experience to understand what it’s like to be a liveaboard cruiser and to feel more comfortable and confident with the skills required to do it.

It’s hard to know everything when planning to start a cruising lifestyle, but getting direct exposure to their knowledge and experience will help you save time and make better, more informed decisions. And best of all they are great people who I am glad I had the chance to meet and spend time on their boat.”

Kenny Jones, from Atlanta Georgia

“After watching Sailing Britican videos, I reached out to Kim regarding the Britican Experience opportunity. I had three primary goals; learn to navigate, experience sailing life and checking in and out of country’s. After three weeks with Kim, Simon and Sienna, I can without a doubt say I got more from my experience than just meeting my goals.

They treated me like family, including me in all their sailing discussions and decision. Simon and Kim are patient, easy going and welcoming. I remember my first night watch alone in a part of the Caribbean where Cargo traffic is frequent. Simon spent the time to reiterate what it means when you see different navigation lights on the ships, how to maneuver and our plan for when/if a boat was within a certain range.

There were lots of discussion about weather and what to do in varying situations, from knowing where we could duck into protection or to how/when to reduce sail area.

My only regret was that I had to return to work.”

Kyle Ian Martindale, Virginia

I first met Kim, Simon and Sienna in Marina Di Ragusa, on the South coast of Sicily in the winter of 2014.

After socialising with them for the winter (and very enjoyable it was!) they asked me to help move Britican to Preveza in Greece, for routine maintenance. It proved to be a fast and fun trip and it was great to experience life on a larger yacht.

After the trip they asked if I would be interested in joining them on the 2015 ARC, I agreed to this immediately and with pleasure, as it would be excellent experience for my own up and coming Atlantic crossing in 2017.

Having sailed for 3 weeks and over 3,000 miles with Kim, Simon and Sienna I can definitely say Britican is a fast, well found and comfortable yacht. Kim and Simon are very positive people and excellent company (and Sienna can always be relied upon to lighten the mood!)

If you want to experience the liveaboard lifestyle or just brush up your own sailing skills with a view to taking the full time plunge, Britican and her crew will give you a first rate introduction into the joys of a cruising life.

From the basics like provisioning, route planning, boat handling, Customs, through to the trials and tribulations of maintenance and boat management that all cruisers encounter, Britican’s owners can always be counted on to have done the research and have a variety of solutions and advice to share.

Through their extensive network of fellow liveaboards you can also guarantee that you will get a comprehensive insight into various yacht types, budgeting options and life style choices.

Get out there and live the dream!

Murray Basingthwaighte, Currently sailing the east coast of America

If you’re interested, please email: Info@SailingBritican.com with your phone number and we’ll call you to discuss your options.

Questions & Answers

Q. My family I are interested in buying a Catamaran. Is it worth coming on Britican considering it’s a monohull?

A. Catamaran’s are great boats. We did not set up our Britican Experience to sell people on the boat but to sell them on the lifestyle. Around 95% of what you’ll learn from us will be the same whether you’re on a Catamaran or Monohull. But saying that, it’s the same with Monohulls and Monohulls – all boats are different and you’ll have to learn how the boat you want to buy is configured. In other words, every boat has a different setup. However, the principles of sailing and more importantly, the lifestyle, are the same no matter what boat you’re in. Furthermore, we know so many Catamaran owners that we’d be able to provide you with a look at Cats while you’re with us.

Q. How does the payment work?

A. As soon as we confirm the dates that you want are free, you can book the $250.00 non-refundable booking fee up above. You’ll then have to pay 50% of the fee one month before the Experience and the remainder is due one week before you arrive.

Q. Do you provide qualifications (ex. RYA)?

A. No. We’re not here to teach by the book. We’re here to show you what life is like living aboard a sailboat. We’re here to give you a fly-on-the-wall look at what it’s really like to be a live aboard cruiser. You will not find paper charts on our boat (although we do have them in a drawer). No one uses charts any more – all passage planning is done on a plotter or iPad now days. And we’re not going to drone on for a full day about how to use every safety mechanism on the boat (although safety is very important to us).

Hey – it’s important to know how to do things the old school way so we definitely advise people to get qualifications. Learn how to do a passage on a paper chart. Learn how to hold a flare the right way. Learn what every night-time boat light configuration means. And when you want an real life experiential situations, come join us and we’ll show you what living on a boat is like 😉

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Contact Us

We help people to take the exciting leap from living on land to becoming full time live-aboard sailors. If you would like to get in touch or having any questions here are our details.
Phone: +1 843-522-2814
Email: info@SailingBritican.com

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